Captain Phasma is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Game Of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie. Introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), the first film in the latest Star Wars sequel trilogy, Phasma is the commander of the First Order’s force of Stormtroopers, or as most would remember her as – The Silver Surfer… er… Centurion. Now, her induction into the Star Wars universe was intended to make her this generation’s Boba Fett – a quiet, armored, gun-toting, bad-ass. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite turn out that way. Captain Phasma is not the Boba Fett of The Force Awakens: Boba Fett was more useful. She had very little screen time and was last seen being taken prisoner by the film’s heroes who dumped her in a trash compactor, going out like a piece of garbage. Sufficed to say, she did not turn out to be the threat she was promised to be. She was more disappointing than the Wii U. Regardless, she still looked mighty f’n cool, clad in the sweetest chrome armor you’ve ever laid your eyes on, cape fluttering in the wind like it was the star in a John Woo action movie.

For the geeks out there who have a thing for flashy Storm Troopers, or are adorned by having the first female Trooper, or for anyone who hopes to see Phasma return in Episode VIII and totally redeem herself, then consider this 1/6th Captain Phasma figure from Sideshow Collectibles via the makers of Hot Toys. Sideshow was kind enough to send Nerd Bastards a sample for review. Follow along with us as we fill in some descriptive adjectives other than “shiny” and “pew pew pew”.

PACKAGING

Ahead of The Force Awakens release, Captain Phasma was heavily pushed by the Disney marketing team. She was all over the still images Disney released ahead of time, had a prominent place on the poster. The outer cover of the shoe box package here however, is perhaps not as dramatic as anything pumped out by Disney. No Acrylic & colored pencil art like you might see out of a Drew Struzan poster. This features a basic figure/character shot, and the interior includes a cover card with some more standard artwork. The figure comes packed in a single plastic tray. It’s all collector friendly, and all very easy to work with, you don’t need a hokey religion or a blaster by your side to get it open, but it’s also all very standard stuff.

THE FIGURE

Hot Toys lives up to its reputation for detail and precision with this 1/6th-scale amazon woman First Order trooper, sporting her shiny, well-worn armor, and black cape. This is one of the few Phasma toys that actually replicates her stunningly silvered armor with metallic paint. The high gloss chrome certainly does reflect the light, and the quality of the application is well above the usual cheap plating you see with most toys. And that cape, come on, what outfit isn’t dramatically improved by wearing a cape?

Standing a full 13 1/2 inches tall, Phasma is packed with some fantastic detailing, from wear on her cloth cape to the scuff marks on her helmet and chest plate. Nitpicky fans will likely remember Phasma’s armor as being more immaculate than what is represented on this figure. While the weathering and rust spots is not per say screen accurate, which is abnormal for Hot Toys to go off script, it is a welcome design choice, adding a sense of abuse and age; making Phasma look like she’s had a history other than just walking aside Troopers or asking them to put their helmets back on.

In further respect to Hot Toys being on point, is Phasma’s posterior. Phasma’s armor is supposed to be gender neutral (so no boobs in the breast plate or high heal boots) but there is no hiding her womanly figure, slender waist and wide hips. A look at her butt and the immortal words of Crazy Town “Come my lady Come come my lady ”may come to mind. In other words, for something that most would have not noticed or cared, Hot Toys did.

One main drawback, is the figures mobility. If this is a highly articulated figure, you wouldn’t know. The armor and body suit does restrict the majority of the joints. The arms and shoulders can take basic gun holding poses, but the tight body suit doesn’t allow for any other bends or robust movements. Positioning her holding her rifle is pretty much the definitive pose collectors would be stuck with. Which to some, may be perfectly fine. It is a striking and formidable pose, is it not?

She also has her blaster, painted in a matte golden color with black details. It has an extendable stock and can be holstered on her hip thanks to a magnet.

Lastly, a First Order emblem hexagonal figure stand with Captain Phasma nameplate and Star Wars logo. Sidenote: Has the Imperial logo always looked like a gaping butthole or has the Internet ruined me?

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM (The Not So Good Stuff)

The symmetry/proportion of the helmet seems a bit off, with lower part of the helmet seemingly wider than on screen. Also that distance between the neck in shoulders is too far apart. Fortunately, once the cape is fastened around the neck, it’s not noticeable but take the cape off and flashbacks to those long necked African women as featured on National Geographic will come flooding back.

Ever hear the phrase “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”? This obviously is not a Weeble. Phasma wobbles and falls down. Not sturdy in the slightest. A mild fart will knock her over. And that is in thanks to the practically weightless under-body and and plastic armor. The accompanied stand is really quite needed to maintain vertical austerity.

All the armor pieces are independent and unfastened to, really, well, anything. Legs, thighs, forearms, and shoulder pieces all just sort of float on the body like a bracelet to a wrist. While the underlying ribbed suit (for her pleasure no doubt) provides some stick/friction, the armor will often spin around and look cockeyed. Having to futz with the armor is not Hot Toys fault. In fact, it’s rather a compliment to how accurate the reproduction is. Storm Trooper armor is, in reality, all held together with Imperial brand duct tape and the tears of baby Jedi. As true to form as it is, the fragility and haphazardness is frustrating all the same. Feels cheap, even when it isn’t. Having said that, there had to be some way to engineer the arm gauntlets and should pads to be fastened in a way that they don’t rotate or fall out when positioning the figure.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

While the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has come and gone, enthusiasm for the franchise is still at an all-time high. The film delivered on practically every front. Not only was it incredibly faithful to the spirit of the original trilogy, but it also managed to bring an extra element to the table that was missing from those classic films: women. While Captain Phasma was a disappointment, she’s still the first female Storm Trooper featured on film. That means something to a lot of fans. What she lacked in purpose, was made up by how immensely bad-ass looking she was/is.

Captain Phasma was already a spectacular design in the first place, and there’s been some truly lovely toys that represent that design over the past year, but Hot Toys, as they do with most things, have taken a good figure and turned it into a great one. There’s some shots where it is easy to forget that isn’t Gwendoline Christie posing for a photoshoot. Only thing needed, is a couple of Stormtroopers to flank her.

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